


Safe

by Amethystdarkwolf



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Anxiety Attacks, Blood, Lack of Sleep, Mention of sex, Minor Violence, Other, Panic Attacks, Parental Abuse, Physical Abuse, Self-Harm, Snek gets hurt, Starving, Suicidal Thoughts, Swearing, Verbal Abuse, Victim Blaming, Violence, Waterboarding, mentions of cannibalism, mentions of demons - Freeform, nothing detailed it's just remus, someone being told to kill themselves
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-14
Updated: 2020-05-14
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:55:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24182467
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amethystdarkwolf/pseuds/Amethystdarkwolf
Summary: Janus lives in an abusive home, always keeping secrets and hiding what happens behind closed doors. When he finally tells, he gets an out.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 119





	Safe

**Author's Note:**

> Lmao I vanish for months and don't write anything at all for a long time. Then I write a 6,000 word oneshot in like three days. I broke my record so that's cool at least.
> 
> Extra warning. If you do not like the snek boy getting hurt. Do Not Read This Fic. This is pretty heavy
> 
> Before anyone asks, I'm fine I just got this idea and it was nagging me too much to not write. Maybe I'll write some soft Patceit later.
> 
> Also I had Janus' playlist on repeat the entire time I was writing this lmao, that shit slaps.

Janus' eyes went in and out of focus, as he curled in on himself, falling to his knees and coughed up blood. The side of his face stung, he was used to it. This wasn't the worst thing he had done to him. He tensed up waiting for another slap once he caught his breath, instead it was a kick to the stomach.

"You explain to me exactly what the fuck you think you were doing!" His father shouted as he doubled over again. Janus couldn't catch his breath to speak quickly enough, the time limit was short. It was always too short. He was only met with another slap to the face, "I fucking asked you a question you worthless piece of shit!"

Janus could tell he was shaking, his limbs were already getting tired of holding himself up. He was ready to collapse at any second, but he knew he couldn't. If he did, it wouldn't have ended well. "I-I... I wasn't doing-" A fist was brought down hard onto his shoulder, making him shriek as his arm gave out, leaving him to fall over onto his side.

"You weren't doing anything??" his father grabbed his arm and practically ripped his sleeve off, revealing a myriad of scars underneath. "The hell are these if you weren't doing anything?!" Janus tried to pull his arm back, but his father only held tighter. Making the barely healed scars burn once again. "Fucking answer me!" he demanded.

"I don't know!" Janus yelled back.

That was a mistake.

His father pulled away from him, letting go of his arm, only to step on his other hand. Janus screamed, desperately trying to pull his hand away. This only made the abuser apply more pressure, "What the fuck have I told you about raising your voice at me?! Did you not fucking learn from me cutting your face up?"

Janus broke, letting a sob escape him as tears he had tried to hold back finally fell down his face. His father let up on his hand, but only walked away. It wasn't over, Janus knew that. He brought his hand close to his chest as he further curled up. He slowly curled his fingers and spread them out again, his hand wasn't broken. He was grateful for that at least.

When his father came back, he was holding a small swiss-army knife. "Since you like to fucking cut yourself so much." he tossed the closed knife at him, "Make yourself even more unlovable." Janus glanced up, eyes wide and fearful, "w-what...?"

"What? Did you not fucking hear me you idiot?! I didn't hurt your left hand. If you want to cut yourself so god damn badly, be useful for once and cut your face up for me."

Janus found himself reaching for and opening up the little knife without thinking. Slowly, he brought it to the left side of his face, already littered with bruises, scratches and burns. He dug the blade into his skin, and dragged it across. Gritting his teeth. Little beads of blood began to form and fall down as he did it again, and again, and again.

He continued until his father said it was enough. A fairly decent amount of blood had dripped down to the tile floor, the knife itself was nearly drenched in it. "Now, go clean this shit up. Keep the knife." His father spat as he walked away. It was over. For now.

Janus slowly brought himself to a stand, weakly making his way to the kitchen to grab some paper towels. He cleaned up the blood on the floor first, there were consequences if he had tended to himself first. He didn't know if he could handle those tonight. After about an hour he had cleaned up and bandaged himself the best he could.

His reflection was bloodied, eyes were puffy from crying. He hesitantly shut the bathroom door, and locked it. Making sure to be quiet as he did so. There were already cracks in the door. He slowly sat down resting his head against the cabinets. He brought his left hand up to cover his mouth quickly as he began to sob.

It hurt, everything hurt. He couldn't stop shaking. The little knife was clean on the counter. The thoughts raced through his head that he could just be done with all of this so easily. He shook his head, he wasn't going to let him win. He didn't know how long he had sat there, sobbing and curled up in a little ball. But it must have been awhile, as he heard his father's bedroom door close which he only did once he was going to bed.

Slowly, and carefully he stood again. He unlocked the bathroom door and walked out, staying quiet as he did so. He made it to his bedroom, shutting the door and putting a door stop he had stolen from the school down to keep it from being opened. He picked up his phone, smiling a little as he saw his group chat being spammed with messages.

Nerd: It is almost ten pm, I am hoping you all are going to bed soon.

V: lmao whats sleep

Heathen: i can do a couple other things in bed ;)))))))))

Disney Prince: Gross.

Pat: Really, Remus?

Heathen: what! Im just being honest!

Heathen: hey! @ snake come defend meeeeeeee

Pat: He shouldn't :/

Heathen: @ snake @ snake @ snake @ snake

Nerd: Tagging him multiple times in one message will only notify him once.

Heathen: o

Heathen: @ snake

Heathen: @ snake

Heathen: @ snake

V: why did you tell him that.

Heathen: @ snake

Nerd: I have realized my mistake

He chuckled a little, making sure to keep it quiet. He carefully replied back, his right hand still aching.

Snake: Wow, nice job Logan.

Heathen: J!!!!!! :DDDDDDD

Pat: Everything okay? you werent responding for awhile

Snake: Everything's fine, I was just eating dinner.

Pat: it's late! D:

Snake: It's before midnight-

V: See? Not that late

V: oh idk if you saw that convo

Snake: I'll reread through everything tomorrow. I'm probably going to go to bed.

Pat: Okay hun! Goodnight!

V: night

Nerd: Goodnight

Disney Prince: Farewell!

Heathen: Nighty night! don't let the demons fuck you!

Heathen: or do, idk what ur into

V: can you say something not gross for once?

Heathen: Janus

Pat: AWWWW

V: that's gross but in a different way, i'll give you that.

Janus smiled a little, even if it hurt. Virgil wasn't wrong, he was disgusting. Not that they ever saw the disgusting parts of him. His eyes drifted to the mask on his bedside table. It covered the left side of his face, he was able to get the school to agree to him wearing it, his parents had claimed it was because of a car accident, and that they didn't want the scars to distract other students.

It was all bullshit, but the school bought it. So he can hide, he can keep this secret close to his chest forever. He got changed into something more comfortable to sleep in, his stomach growled but he ignored it. He didn't get to eat dinner tonight, and that was fine. He was used to it.

He curled up in bed, the shaking had gone down subtly. But the words from his father still rang in his head. He was right, he was unlovable. The only people in his life that actually cared about him only did so because they had never seen that half of his face. Remus has tried several times to snatch the mask off, luckily, Janus was used to moving and dodging quickly.

The thought of them seeing made him sick to his stomach. They would all be disgusted with him, Remus wouldn't be, but he would laugh at him for them. They would keep their distance after that, not wanting to be friends with the freak. He didn't realize he was starting to cry until the tears had stung the scars on his face.

He huffed, "Fucking pathetic." he muttered harshly to himself. "It isn't that big of a deal. You've gone through this before. Get over it." He dug his nails into his fist, trying to keep control over himself. He shouldn't be crying. This wasn't as bad as it could've been. He's been through worse. 

It's fine.

**\-----**

The next day, he acted like nothing had happened. He had become the master of that. He met up with their group before school, and talked with them, about any of their interests or inside jokes. Like any normal friend group. Lunch was the same.

"If we were, theoretically, to eat the rich-"

"Janus, that would be considered cannibalism. And would only lead to jail time."

"Who said I would get caught? Plus the legal system can be skewed, if you know what to say and how to say it."

"You think the richer they are, the more flavor they'd have?"

"Remus is asking the important questions."

He even smiled and laughed with them. He kept up his facade.

It wasn't until they were hanging out after school while waiting for the twins to be done with rehearsal that things started to go wrong.

They were sitting on the benches outside the auditorium, Patton was sitting beside him. Swaying back and forth and humming to himself, while Logan read and Virgil played on his phone. Patton smiled a little, and quickly laid his head on Janus' shoulder. The one that had been hit harshly the night before.

Janus jerked away with an involuntary hiss. Patton quickly moved back, looking at Janus confused, "Whoa! I'm so sorry! What's wrong?" he asked quietly. Janus quickly shook his head, "Oh! I just slept wrong." He said with a bit of a forced laugh, "and I wasn't expecting it."

"Oh, I'm sorry." Patton apologized again before dropping the conversation there. Janus found himself glancing at the time. The twins got out of rehearsal at around three thirty. It was now three fifteen. He only had fifteen more minutes before he had to be back to that hell of a household.

He tried to just enjoy the time, but he only became more uneasy as the time passed all too quickly. It felt like the quickest fifteen minutes in his life. Soon enough, Roman walked out of the auditorium. Backpack slung over his shoulder, "Ready to go?" he called to the others.

They nodded and began to stand and gather their stuff. Janus went a bit slower than the others, trying to keep from visibly shaking. He still had the car ride, Patton and Logan got dropped off before him, so he just needed to put up his defenses by then.

Logan glanced around, with a confused expression on his face. "Wait, where's Remus?" Roman shared his look of confusion. "He was right behind me when we were leaving..."

As if on cue, Remus jumped out from the side door to the auditorium. "SURPRISE BITCHES!" he yelled as he tackled Janus. His mask flew off, and skidded across the tile. Leaving his face exposed, for the others to see.

They had crowded him to make sure he was okay, but they were now reeling back in shock. Eyes wide and mouths agape. Janus looked at all of their expressions, all of them seeming to match. He squirmed from where he was still underneath Remus. Not wanting to be around when the shock turned to disgust and hatred. "Let me go! Let me go!" he yelled, as he tried weakly to shove Remus off.

Remus came back to himself and moved off of Janus as fast as possible. Janus scrambled to his feet, he ran to the bathroom, snatching up his mask as he did so. He ran and locked himself in the last stall. He collapsed and sat back against the wall. The floors were disgusting but he couldn't bring himself to care.

This was too much, they all saw. They all saw him, they all saw his disgusting face. The wounds that he caused himself. He couldn't even try to explain it to them. He was weak for doing this. No one forced him to. He did it himself. He sobbed, bringing his knees to his chest. His friends were going to leave him, and he would be all alone again.

He couldn't take it. His body shuttered, as a chill crawled down his spine. Maybe he would be better off dead... He had thought about it several times before, now there was only spite preventing him. Even that was starting to run out. 'Worthless piece of shit.' 'unlovable' 'useless' the numerous insults echoed through his head.

Through all of this noise, he didn't hear the bathroom door open. He continued to sob, his mind in a spiral, if he had to walk home he would get beaten again for taking so long. The buses had already left for the day. He would have to deal with this again. And again. He wouldn't ever be free.

"Janus...?" The small, hesitant voice cut through his clouded mind. "Janus, it's okay..." It was Patton. Janus bit his tongue a bit harder than he meant to at first, he knew they had heard him, he was the only one in the stalls, thankfully. "Janus, please, it's okay..."

"No... no no no... don't do that." Janus whimpered, slight hiccuping breaths leaving him. There was silence for a moment, "Don't do what?" Patton asked. He sounded genuinely confused. Janus sobbed, "Don't act like you aren't just going to cut ties with me tomorrow! Like-like you aren't disgusted with me, like you don't see me as some sort of freak!" Now that it was coming out it was hard to stop, "don't give me that hope. Please..."

"Janus, no! I-I would never do that! We wouldn't leave you because of that! Please, we just wanna know that you're okay, and, and what happened... if you're okay to share it of course!" Patton stammered out. Janus paused, "We?" he asked. "Yeah, yeah we're all here, it's just us... it's okay." His voice sounded so warm, calming and inviting.

Janus took a moment, but slowly stood up again. He took a couple breaths and opened the stall door. He expected faces of disgust and pity. But, all he saw in their expressions was worry and concern. "Oh, Janus..." Patton murmured, taking a small, hesitant step forward. Janus fully came out of the stall, now face to face with them.

Patton was teary-eyed, he could tell. Janus had known them for so long that he knew Patton was about five seconds away from crying. "Is... Is it okay if I hug you?" He asked. Janus glanced between the others, knowing their group, if there was one hug it quickly became all of the hugs. Though he was rarely on the receiving end of the hugs.

He wasn't always the biggest fan of physical touch, but, now it was all he could think about. He wanted to be hugged, held, told everything was going to be okay. So he nodded, "Please..." his voice barely came out as a whisper. Patton smiled a little, and he hugged him, oh so gently. Patton was soft, his hugs were warm, like curling up with the softest blanket right out of the dryer.

The strong walls Janus had built up as a defense were slowly starting to crumble as he clung onto him. One by one, the others asked permission, promised to be careful, and then hugged him once they got the okay. Each whispered comfort, and reassurance chipped into the barrier he had made over the years and years of keeping quiet, and being hurt.

It only took a final promise that they were here for him, that they weren't going to leave, that broke him. He sobbed into Patton's shoulder, his defense finally coming down, all of the lies, fake smiles, and made up stories for why he hid his face and his hands finally falling through. And they held him through it.

Janus admitted everything, he explained everything. The abuse he had suffered, the threats that had been made. The insults, the near-torture he had experienced. Once the floodgates had opened, they weren't closing. The others were horrified, Remus looked as if he was going to go over to Janus' house and kill his father then and there.

But they listened, even as Janus pulled off his gloves, to show his bandaged hand, and lifted up his shirt to show a bruise forming on his stomach. Patton did end up crying and hugging him again, being extra careful. "We-we'll... We can get you out of there," Patton promised. "You, you turn eighteen in a day or so right?" he murmured.

Janus nodded, "Yes..."

"Well, we definitely have space for you, and our parents will understand, I'll call mom right now." Roman murmured quickly as he pulled out his phone. Logan nodded, "I also have space, if staying with Roman and Remus does not work out as intended. My mother is a lawyer,-"

"Of course she is." Virgil chimed in, hoping to slightly lighten the mood.

"So, we can most definitely see to it that nothing negative comes to you do to you leaving." Logan continued. Janus nodded again, "I-I, Thank you..." he whimpered, "I, I need to get out of there..."

"You will, you will be safe, just make it through tonight and tomorrow." Logan commented, Janus couldn't help the small snicker that left him. "You remembered my birthday, what do you care about me or something?" he spoke in hopes to make himself feel more optimistic about his circumstances.

They laughed a little, the obvious, heavy, weight of what happened loomed over them. But they didn't discuss it any further. They only now were talking about lighter things. To hopefully keep Janus' spirits up. Before he inevitably had to go back.

They could only keep it up so long. Eventually, they had to go back to their houses. Roman dropped them off in their normal order. Logan, Patton then Janus. Patton had given Janus one last hug before getting out of the car, and Logan had reminded him that is only today and tomorrow.

Janus hesitated on getting out of the car. Already knowing he was late, and that it may end badly. Virgil bit his lip, "J, just, hold out okay? It'll be over soon..." He murmured as he held onto Janus' non hurt hand. Janus nodded, and carefully hugged Virgil. They sat there for about a minute before Janus got out of the car.

When he walked inside, his father was in the living room watching TV. He shut the door as carefully as possible as to not be yelled at for slamming it. "There you are, was wondering where the fuck you went." The man on the couch cursed, "The hell were you?"

"Roman and Remus' rehearsal ran late." The lie slipped off his tongue so easily. He tried to just walk to his room, but he was talking again. "You could've texted me that." Janus rolled his eyes as he was faced away. "I'll do it next time." he said.

The tv went silent as his father paused it. "Was that a fucking attitude I just heard?" He snapped. Janus tensed, "No, I'm sorry." he stuttered out quickly. But it was already too late, the damage was done. His father stood up and walked over to him. "Wait a minute. Where the fuck is your mask? Why aren't you wearing it?" He asked.

Janus' breath caught in his throat, "I took it off when I got inside." He lied, it wasn't believable. He wasn't holding it, and it was plain to see he hadn't just now taken it off. His father grabbed him by the neck, almost choking him in a vice grip. He brought his hand across the scarred side of Janus' face hard. Making Janus scream.

"Shut the fuck up!" The fist was next. A harsh punch to his face, before he was being thrown to the ground. "I swear to fucking god. If someone saw all those scars, you better say it was an accident. You hear me??" He yelled in his face as he brought another fist down onto him.

Janus coughed up blood once again, he tried his hardest to stutter out an affirmative. He tried to fight back, but was only hit with more punches. "Stop trying to fucking fight me! You deserve this!" This only continued for a little while longer, before his father got bored and let Janus go.

He kicked him in the stomach again. "Stay right fucking there." Janus nodded. His vision was blurring and splotchy out of his left eye. He tried to blink to make it go away, but it only hurt worse and made that side of his vision go darker. He barely heard the kitchen faucet running. He took a deep breath, trying to remind himself that it was only tonight and tomorrow.

The faucet shut off, Janus queued into the dreadful silence that came afterwards. Then, his father was back in his limited vision, holding a large pot. Without any time for Janus to realize what it was, about a third of the pot of boiling water was poured onto his face. Janus gasped and writhed trying to breathe and yet his body naturally wanting to scream due to the burning. Then it stopped. "Tell me that you're never going to fucking tell anyone." The man above him demanded. Janus turned on his side trying to cough up the water that had burned his face and upper torso. Even down his throat. "I-I..." He croaked. ""M not..." he sobbed as the words failed to come out of his mouth.

He was kicked over onto his back again, and another part of the water was poured onto him. "I'm not fucking stopping until you say it." Janus coughed and choked on the water. Once it had stopped, he immediately tried to rasp out, "n-not, not goi...ng t..o" he whimpered as his voice started to give out. "T-te..ll..." he managed.

His father nodded, "Now. clean all the water up and do your homework." He spat at him before leaving to empty out the pot. Janus sat up quickly, the room seeming to spin a little. He coughed and spat out more water. His vision in his left eye still hadn't returned. He didn't have time to worry about it.

He winced as his face stung and burned. The hot water against the relatively new cuts only made them sting further, the soon to be bruises also didn't help. He scrambled to try and stand up, and slipped on the water a bit. He caught himself on the wall, and tried to keep himself from falling back down.

It took him a minute, but he held himself up and made his way to the kitchen. His father was there, he couldn't quite tell what he was doing, but a part of him knew he wasn't getting anything to eat or drink tonight. He grabbed the paper towels and made his way back to the water, cleaning it up quickly.

He grabbed his backpack and went to his room, he collapsed on the bed, his entire body feeling drained. He gagged a little, just remembering the feeling of the water invading and taking over his ability to breathe. He was very lucky he didn't have any homework.

He didn't check his phone that night.

**\-----**

Janus had just gotten to school, running a bit later than usual since he could barely move this morning. "Janus!" His name was shouted from across the hall, Patton rushed over. "Are you okay? You didn't respond to my texts, or any-" Janus shook his head, "can't..." he mumbled, it sounded scratchy and barely above a whisper.

Patton's eyes widened, "Oh, Janus... Tomorrow, just make it through today..." he murmured, taking a hold of Janus' left hand, "you'll be okay..."

Janus sniffled, a few tears already starting to form. Patton, carefully hugged him, holding him like he had done the day before, "you're so close, Jan, you're so close..." The warning bell rang, so they said their goodbyes-well, Janus only waved- and went to their classes.

At lunch, Janus was spacing out, looking between the other's plates as best as he could. His vision still had not returned in his left eye, and he was starting to worry if it ever would. Logan noticed his looks to the food the others had, when he had none. And subtly moved his tray closer to Janus.

"Tha..nk y.ou..." he managed. Logan nodded. He was curious as to what happened, but he wasn't going to ask. The group remained careful with Janus, texting him little positive reminders that it was only today. He tried to believe that it was going to stop tomorrow, but he only felt like today would bring much worse horrors than he faced yesterday.

The end of the day came way too soon for him. He was already shaking as the bell rang, even though he knew he had about an hour before he would actually leave. He sat down on the benches once again, once again, Patton sat beside him. There was silence. Everyone knew that something horrible had happened. But they weren't going to ask. Especially when Janus' couldn't speak.

When the twins came out of rehearsal, they remained quiet. They walked out to Roman's car, almost forming a group around Janus subconsciously, as if they could protect him from whatever he was going to experience when he got home. Janus sat in-between Patton and Virgil, both trying to subtly help calm him.

Logan had already gotten dropped off, and they were now sitting in front of Patton's house. Patton took a deep breath, "Only tonight, then tomorrow we can get you out. Okay?" He promised quietly. Janus nodded, giving Patton's hand a small squeeze. Patton squeezed his hand back, before getting out of the car and going inside.

Janus was given a hug, and more murmurs of reassurance as he was dropped off. He took a deep breath as he went inside. His mask was still on, gloves were still on, he was hidden. He was safe on that point at least. "I'm home..." he called, his voice luckily had gotten a little better over the course of the night before and the day.

"Come here." He heard from the living room. Janus nodded, and set his bag down before going over to the living room. His father looked him over, seeming to decide something, "Go get the knife."

Janus froze, "w-why?.. I...I didn't do anything." His father stood up from the couch suddenly, "Now you're talking back to me? Have you really not learned your lesson yet?" He snapped. Janus stepped back, not that he could run anywhere if he were to run. "I-I'm sorry..." he murmured.

His father stayed silent for a moment, and for that blissful moment, Janus thought he had actually managed to calm him down. But he hadn't. His father grabbed Janus by his hair and began dragging him to the bathroom. Janus screamed, as much as his voice would allow, he tried to pull away from his tormentor, but it only hurt his scalp more.

"You need to fucking learn, you're going to be eighteen you would've thought that you would've learned by now." His father shoved his face against the counter. Holding it there as he turned the faucet on. Janus struggled a bit, already starting to shake, and he could already feel the tears welling up.

Before he had time to process what his father was doing. A bar of soap was being shoved into his mouth, he gagged trying to pull away as the suds filled his mouth. "You need to fucking learn to respect me. I'm the one who made sure you fucking existed. You owe me at least some respect." His father's ranting became muted as Janus started to choke on the taste and feeling of the soap.

It felt like an eternity, of being berated and forced to swallow down soap suds. "Until you learn how to act, this will keep happening. This is your fault." Finally, the bar was pulled away form his mouth and he was let go. There was no demand to clean up as his father left this time. It now went without saying.

Janus stumbled a little, barely making it to the toilet and throwing up. His sobs began mixing with gagging as he almost threw up again. He would be free soon. He just needed to clean up, and start packing. His throat stung, and all he could taste was the chemicals coating his tongue.

He slowly cleaned up and brushed his teeth, before grabbing his backpack again and going to his room. As he sat back on his bed, he checked his phone seeing a message in their group chat.

Pat: Please let us know if ur ok when you can J <3 @ snake

The others hadn't responded, which he felt was a bit odd. But he replied regardless.

Snake: I'll be fine. I'm starting to pack up a little now.

Pat: okay <3

Janus sighed, and began to pack up some things. He didn't have an actual suitcase or anything, but he had bags and backpacks left over from other years of school. Luckily he didn't have too much stuff he actually wanted to take with him. Just some clothes, a small snake stuffed animal he had kept hidden in the back of his closet, and then other necessities.

He hesitated on taking the little swiss army knife with him. He knew he shouldn't, but a part of him wanted to. For some twisted reason his mind saw it as a possible way out in case it became too much again. He decided against it, and set the bag of his things in the back of the closet as to not have any possibility of his father finding it.

At around one in the morning, his door opened. Janus looked up from his homework, not saying anything as he didn't really think he could. His eyes widened as he noticed the gun in his father's hand. "Happy birthday" The man said, spite filling his words. He set the gun on the bed beside Janus, "Hopefully you'll kill yourself with it. It's not like you were doing anything useful for eighteen years anyways" he chuckled, as he left.

Janus glared once he had left the room, sighed then set the gun on the bedside table. The words echoed in his head, no matter how much he tried to distract from it. He listened to music trying to drown out the increasingly distressing thoughts. This didn't work, eventually he couldn't stop more tears from falling down his face.

He didn't get any sleep that night. The swiss army knife got put into the bag.

**\----**

The next morning, he grabbed his backpack and the bag he packed to leave and left for the bus. His father was always asleep when he left for school in the morning. That bit he was lucky for. He checked his phone, smiling a little as he saw messages from the others.

Disney Prince: Happy birthday, Janus!

Heathen: Ur legal now!

Snake: lmao you aren't. Thx Roman

Nerd: Happy birthday, I'm assuming you brought what you were taking to Roman and Remus' with you today?

Snake: Yeah, I didn't have much anyways.

V: happy birthday

Pat: HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! <3333

Snake: Thank you

Snake: <3

V: Aw

Snake: shut up

As the day progressed he found the anxiousness slowly ebbing away, replaced by something he hadn't felt fully in a long time. Actual happiness and joy. He found himself smiling a bit more genuinely, even laughing a little _(even if it barely made noise due to the damage to his throat.)_

The twins rehearsal had gotten canceled that day since the drama teacher had called out sick. So once the bell to end the day sounded, they all met up by the auditorium again, simply to regroup before heading to Roman's car.

On the way there, Patton slipped his hand into Janus' empty one. Janus froze for a moment, meeting Patton's gaze, who was looking up at him to double check that it was okay. After a bit, Janus nodded, squeezing Patton's hand a little and continuing to walk with the others.

Janus took a deep breath and turned off his phone. He knew he would get calls and texts from his father when he didn't come home. He wasn't going to explain it. This was what he had to do. To protect himself.

They didn't drop the others off this time, the twins' mom had let the others stay over to help Janus get situated. It was also Friday, and had been okayed by the parents of the others. Luckily, Roman and Remus' house was massive, their parents were pretty well off. So Janus had his own room.

He unpacked the few things he brought with him, and tried to get used to the idea that this was where he was going to be now. He kept his mask on, every time he thought about taking it off around the others he still felt that feeling of fear of not letting anyone see. Not telling anyone.

They had reassured him that it was okay, but he still wanted to stay hidden. And they respected that. They had a movie marathon at the end of the day, Janus still had his phone off. And he was scared to turn it back on. He knew that legally his father couldn't do anything, and that he would be protected.

But Janus' father did quite a few things that weren't legal.

Eventually, he got up the courage to turn it on. Immediately texts and missed call notifications poured in.

The Devil: Where the hell are you??

The Devil: Hello??

The Devil: Where the fuck did you go?!!?

The Devil: I swear to god when I get my fucking hands on you again

The Devil: If you aren't dead then you will wish you were.

The Devil: YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF SHIT ANSWER YOUR DAMN PHONE

The Devil: I WILL FUCKING TRACK YOU DOWN

The Devil: YOU WONT BE FUCKING SAFE FROM ME

The Devil: NO ONE CAN FUCKING PROTECT YOU

The Devil: youll regret this

The Devil: I wont stop until i fucking find you

The Devil: Answer me

The Devil: Answer me

The Devil: Answer me

Janus started shaking, dread bubbled up in his stomach and his breathing began to pick up pace. Patton carefully took his phone from him, "Hey, hey, Jan, it's okay." he murmured, "You're safe, I promise okay?"

Roman moved to be beside him, "Exactly what Patton said. You're safe."

Remus chimed in, "Yeah! I'll kill him if he even tries to come close to you!"

Virgil nodded, "You're gonna be okay, just try to breathe, you're okay."

Logan agreed with Virgil's statement, and offered to help Janus through some breathing exercises if he needed to.

After about an hour, Janus calmed down he curled up on the little pile of blankets he had been given to sleep on, _(the group had wanted to sleep in the living room that night so they could pass out watching movies.)_ Patton gave a small smile, "You wanna try to get some sleep?" Janus nodded. Emotionally, mentally and physically exhausted from these past few days. And the lack of sleep catching up to him.

They all settled in, after voting on a movie to watch. _(They were all vaguely aware that Roman rigged the vote, but they didn't really care enough to comment on it this time.)_ Janus was the first to fall asleep, out in seconds.

He was finally, _finally_ safe.


End file.
